It's Gardening Time!

The gardening season is fast approaching here in Michigan, and I am so excited! Jacque at Seeking Rest in the Ancient Paths wrote a wonderful post about learning in the garden. She also posted a photo journal of her family's gardening experience last year that is very inspiring.

I found a gardening gem this morning that I just have to share: Garden-Based Learning. This website is geared towards starting school-based gardening programs, but it contains quite a bit of helpful information, activities, projects, and other gardening resources and publications. I was especially excited to find a downloadable guide entitled Know Your Insects (a 4-H publication in PDF format) that includes instructions for starting an insect collection. We are studying invertebrates for our Outdoor Hour Challenge, and we will be learning about insects as soon as we are finished with worms, snails and spiders.

Cornell's Gardening Resources website is also full of gardening helps, too many to list here.

Cornell's resources focus on the northeastern United States, but there are a lot of helpful tips for all gardeners. However, if you live in the U.S., you can find links to your state's Cooperative Extension System office here.

Here are some of my favorite gardening links:

• Garden Guides
• Backyard Wildlife Habitat
• kidsgardening.org (another site with classroom-based ideas - tons of information here)
• My First Garden (the format here is friendly for younger children)

 There are so many wonderful gardening websites available. I would love it if you would share some of your favorites; I'll add them to my list (giving you credit, of course).

"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted...." Ecclesiastes 3: 2-3

Happy Gardening!